Individual Consulting Services

Lawyers Alliance for New York (LANY) is the leading provider of business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are improving the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods. By connecting lawyers, nonprofits, and communities, LANY helps nonprofits to develop affordable housing, stimulate economic development, and operate vital programs for children and young people, the elderly, recent immigrants, and other low-income New Yorkers.

Community Resource Exchange

42 Broadway, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10004
(212) 894-3394

Community Resource Exchange (CRE) is a nonprofit consulting firm with a unique purpose – catalyzing social change by building the management capacity of nonprofit organizations advancing the interests of low- and moderate-income individuals and neighborhoods in New York City. CRE believes that community-based organizations (CBOs) are the engines of social change for people and neighborhoods in which opportunities and resources are limited. CRE executes its mission through one-to-one consulting and professional development in areas of core competency including: planning, board development, fundraising, human resources management, budgeting and financial management, mergers and organizational restructuring, and leadership development.

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement, particularly among historically
underrepresented communities. CUP collaborates with community organizations, advocacy groups, students, artists, designers, and educators, to create accessible, visual explanations of the complex policy and planning issues and decision-making processes. These projects increase the capacity of communities to advocate for their own local needs and to participate in shaping the places where they all live. CUP projects begin with specific community needs and collaborators use a research-based, design-driven process to create inventive tools for community participation and change. Through its Community Education Programs, CUP creates print and media publications and workshop tools with and for community partners. These visual tools are designed to be used by constituencies that can most benefit from the information. CUP believes that these projects are at the forefront of a new kind of civics education, one that uses design, media, and community engagement to lay the groundwork for effective democratic participation.

Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center (CDP) strengthens the impact of grassroots organizing in New York’s low-income and other excluded communities. CDP achieves this through developing close partnerships with community organizations and providing legal, technical, and research and policy assistance in support of their work towards social justice.
CDP’s Research and Policy Initiative utilizes a participatory action research model in which low-income and excluded communities are central to the design and development of research and policy. CDP’s research and policy work consists of the following:

• Participatory Action Research Reports: CDP works with its community partners to design, administer, analyze and write participatory action research reports, which are used by the partner organizations to educate community members, engage elected officials, garner media attention and advocate for socially just policies.
• Grassroots Policymaking: With community organizations, CDP researches and develops ground-up policy solutions to problems they identify and document.
• Popular-Education Curriculum Design and Research Training: CDP’s trainings and tools assist communities in conducting their own research, including the recently-launched “Research for Organizing” toolkit and website to build the research capacity of its community partners.
• Strategic Campaign Research: CDP conducts background research and develop fact sheets to provide strategic data in support of organizing campaigns. Its partner organizations use these materials in leadership development, basebuilding and to educate elected and government officials about specific issues and campaigns.